A large percentage of PFAS are not being accounted for in the air, while PFAAs have accumulated in sometimes surprising amounts over 50 years in the high Arctic.

TORONTO, Oct. 9, 2024 鈥� For decades, scientists knew there was a huge swath of undetected and unaccounted for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the atmosphere, often referred to as PFAS dark matter, but no one knew how much was missing or how to measure them. Now, a 91亚色 atmospheric chemistry research team has devised a way to test for one of the most ubiquitous elements of these potent greenhouse gases.

By measuring for gaseous fluorine, one of the most prevalent and overlooked contaminants, scientists can better understand the extent of previously unaccounted for PFAS, comprised of thousands of organofluorine compounds. These compounds, used in a wide range of products from food, paint, paper packaging and dental floss to cosmetics and agrochemicals, can off gas fluorine.

The researchers measured how much fluorine was released into the air both in the lab and outside using chemicals, such as fluorosurfactant liquids, and found 65 to 99 per cent of the fluorine in the air inside the lab was not normally unaccounted for, while outside that number was about 50 per cent.

鈥淚 expected missing fluorine, but I didn鈥檛 expect it to be so much. This new technique can measure all fluorinated things in the atmosphere, which has never been done before and shows the majority cannot be accounted for using our usual measurements,鈥� says senior author of the study Professor , an atmospheric chemist and Guy Warwick Rogers Chair in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Science.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important as missing gaseous fluorine accounts for a huge part of airborne PFAS compared to what we actually measure at the moment, which means a lot of the PFAS aren鈥檛 being detected.鈥�

Most PFAS, known as forever chemicals, include fluorine bonded with carbon, a bond that doesn鈥檛 naturally break down in the environment. Testing for fluorine is an easier way to assess how many PFAS are present in the air rather than measuring all 4,700 or so PFAS contaminants individually.

The high quantities of previously unknown PFAS points to a gap, not only in measuring them, but also in understanding their sources and the impact on the environment. Gaseous fluorine is a byproduct of chemicals used in a wide range of products from food, paint, paper packaging and dental floss to cosmetics and agrichemicals.

鈥淥ur lack of focus on this has been mostly because we didn't have the techniques to look at it properly. It's not that people hadn't thought that this might be important, it's that we didn't know how to do it, but now we do,鈥� says lead author RenXi Ye, a PhD student in .

While there are techniques to measure total fluorine in soil and water, there wasn鈥檛 one to capture it in its gas state in the atmosphere. The researchers used a method that they previously developed to test for total gaseous chlorine and adapted it to measure gaseous fluorine.

鈥淢uch of the focus of research on PFAS was on what's happening in the water in the soil, not as much on what happens in the air, despite the fact that these fluorinated compounds, by the nature of their chemical properties and that they are in so many commercial products, are more likely to go into the air,鈥� says Young.

The question of how much gaseous fluorine is going unaccounted for piqued the interest of 91亚色 researchers last year while they were working on their .

Should we worry?

Most people are highly concerned about PFAS exposure, but Young says it鈥檚 too early to know what the effects are of from the off gassing of fluorine into the environment, either human or on the environment.

鈥淎ny fluorinated gas is a potent greenhouse gas, but the impact of that depends on how long it lasts in the atmosphere, but what is the impact of breathing this? When it comes to outdoor air and human exposure, we don't know a lot about how much we breath in,鈥� she says, adding she doesn鈥檛 think anyone should panic, but it is an area that needs more research and could certainly have important implications.

The research 鈥� 鈥� published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters points out that unknown fluorinated chemicals emitted into the atmospherecould not only contribute to the transport of PFAS around the globe but also impact climate change.

PFAS in the Arctic in sometimes surprising quantities found in 50-year-old ice cores

PFAS is the atmosphere are even finding their way into pristine environments like the Arctic. In a recent study led by 91亚色 PhD student Daniel Persaud with Young and team looked at perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in ice cores in the Arctic, from 1967 to 2016, on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut.

鈥淭he measurement covers the longest time period and so you're seeing that it has been accumulating for a very long time,鈥� says Young. The surprising part? 鈥淚n the early part of the ice core, there was more than I thought there would be. I expected it to be accumulating since the 1990s, maybe the 1980s, but in the early part of the core, I thought there would be less鈥�

As the longest deposition record in the Arctic for perfluoroalkylcarboxylic acids (PFCAs) and the longest record globally for perfluoroalkylsulfonic acids (PFSAs), it allowed for observations not previously possible.

Before the 1990s, the ice core showed some variable pulses of accumulation, which the researchers at first weren鈥檛 sure about, but now think it may be linked to Arctic military activities of the time. Starting in the 1990s, however, the ice core shows a steadier accumulation of the chemicals up to the present.

The study shows that most PFAAs are present in the ice at Mt. Oxford icefield on Ellesmere Island and that over 50 years, there is a steady increase of PFCA deposits, but it also highlighted how ice cores are helpful in understanding how PFAS are transported long-range.

鈥淲e were able to confirm that the PFCAs we found in the ice cores are formed primarily through long-range atmospheric transport and oxidation of volatile precursors in the atmosphere,鈥� says Persaud.

The issue now, says Young, is that as the permafrost melts, this resource is disappearing which creates an urgent need to collect more ice cores to further illuminate temporal trends and possible sources of PFAAs.

The paper, , was published in the journal Environmental Science: Processes and Impact.

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91亚色鈥痠s a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91亚色's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future. 

Media Contact: 

Sandra McLean, 91亚色 Media Relations, 416-272-6317,鈥�sandramc@yorku.ca 

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Once again, Canada will almost certainly fail to meet its target to  in accordance with the most recent  recommendations.

This is despite the  spin on the release of its latest . Jerry DeMarco, ,  as a litany of broken promises:

鈥淲e have been repeatedly ringing the alarm bells. Now, these bells are almost deafening.鈥�

Canada is the only G7 nation with 2022 , and its 

And its financial institutions 鈥� banks, pension funds and private equity firms 鈥� fund the industry and are therefore helping fuel the climate crisis.

As a result, financial institutions鈥� assets are at risk. So too are the economy, people鈥檚 lives and ultimately the survival of the planet due to catastrophic fires, floods and droughts.

The federal government has so far been unable to effectively regulate financial institutions鈥� investments in the fossil fuels industry in accordance with its climate commitments.

Regulatory agency

DeMarco recently examined reports by the federal bank regulator, the  that oversees climate risks and sets risk guidance priorities for financial institutions.

The environment commissioner noted that while OSFI has belatedly designated climate change as a top priority, full implementation is years away. OSFI鈥檚 plan to improve banks鈥� resilience to climate change also fails to specifically encourage their transition to net-zero carbon emissions.

Sen. Rosa Galvez  that OSFI should ensure financial institutions have  to protect against the eventuality of 

Financial institutions need to adopt the standard of putting aside , they鈥檒l have enough money to compensate depositors, workers and shareholders and avoid declaring bankruptcy.

In April 2023, the Bank of Canada released its  to provide guidance on the climate change risks facing the Canadian economy and financial system.

Like OSFI, the Bank of Canada report is a start but has a long way to go to make up for lost ground. And ironically, any positive effects could be offset by the bank鈥檚 high interest rate monetary policy. Critics of these central bank policies credibly argue that they hinder the transition away from fossil fuels.

Economic experts argue that .

Current reality

The latest fossil fuels report by the non-governmental organization  found that the world鈥檚 60 largest banks invested more than US$5.5 trillion into the fossil fuel industry since the .

The Big Five Canadian banks all made the list of Top 20 funders globally after investing more than $1 trillion in fossil fuel companies since 2016.

The Royal Bank of Canada ranked as the world鈥檚 largest financier of fossil fuels in 2022, providing fossil fuel companies with US$42.1 billion with a total investment of US$253 billion since 2016 鈥� the fourth highest on the globe.

An article in the journal  estimated that global stranded investor assets 鈥� namely, the present value of future lost profits in exploration, production and related services in the fossil fuel sector 鈥� exceeds US$1 trillion. The Canadian loss risk is more than US$100 billion, disproportionately in employee savings locked up in Canadian pension funds.

Canada鈥檚 largest banks have committed to voluntarily align their investments and lending with the United Nations target of net zero emissions by 2050 as part of the . They have also committed to cut emissions financing in half by 2030.

However, these banks haven鈥檛 made any commitments to jettison their fossil fuel clients. That makes their net-zero pledges highly suspect, bordering .

Conflicts of interest

None of their publicly available plans measure up, according to Matt Price, co-founder of , a shareholder advocacy organization.

Although the International Energy Agency has stated that there鈥檚 no need for additional fossil fuel infrastructure, Canadian banks continue to fund expansion activities. Multiple proposals put forward by  to give them a say on climate plans have been rejected.

A study by the organization  has concluded that Canadian pension funds have generally failed to align their investment strategies with the Paris Agreement goals and neglected to develop a credible pathway to transition out of fossil fuels.

Pension funds are also rife with conflicts of interest. The report found that seven of Canada鈥檚 10 largest public pension funds have at least one director who also sits on the board of a fossil fuel company.

Overall, 80 different directors, trustees, executives and senior staff currently hold or previously held 124 different roles with 76 different fossil fuel companies.

 which manage funds beneath the radar for wealthy individuals and institutional investors, have invested an estimated US$1 trillion in the energy sector since 2010 鈥� the vast majority in fossil fuels.

Where to go from here

Introduced more than a year ago, Galvez鈥檚  鈥� which seeks to hold financial institutions accountable for investments that increase climate risk 鈥� has passed second reading but is still waiting to go to committee and hear from witnesses.

Calling it the gold standard in legislation, 58 academics, myself included, have written a letter urging senators to move the bill forward by referring it to committee for testimony.

The close ties between the federal government and corporations largely explain Ottawa鈥檚 failure to effectively regulate banks and pension fund investments.

The corporate government power relationship 鈥� known as  鈥� largely explains the government鈥檚 failure to effectively regulate banks and pension fund investments.

Regulations benefit the industry at the expense of the public interest. In this case, the fossil fuel industry and financial institution enablers are able to shape the regulations governing their operations, block or delay new regulations and remove or dilute existing regulations deemed a threat to their interests.

Countervailing measures must be urgently implemented to  and ensure the public interest takes precedence over profit.

By 91亚色 Adjunct Professor Bruce Campbell in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

This article is republished from 

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